Las Vegas GPT
It was 68 man event, did not do as well as I had hoped but managed to top 8 regardless. Seven rounds in total. Maindeck is still the same as it has been for all of 2017, netting me a prior GPT win and CFB 4k top 8 which had 114 players. I did make heavy changes to the Sideboard due to the disappearance of Miracles, but I find that I don’t have enough raw data to make a decision on changes to the main deck.
Saying all that, here goes the event.
Round One: UR Delver 2-0
This matchup was as lopsided as it has always been. I resolved Knights in the first game which he couldn’t beat. I resolved Thalia and Stoneforge in the second game which he ignored because he wanted to be ready for Knights.
Round Two: UB Reanimator 2-1
Do not be confused by the name UB, this was BR list that cut Faithless Looting for Careful Studies and added Brainstorm somehow. Game one I got lucky. On the draw he played a Polluted Delta and a Lotus Petal while on the play I cast a turn 2 Thalia. At some point he threw an Unmask at me just to see what other cards I had before scooping the game.
He got a fast draw on game two which ended me, but only had a turn 2 reanimate play in game three; which was unfortunately stopped by a turn 1 DRS with Karakas backup. He was never able to recover and it was a quick win from there.
Round Three: Nic Fit 2-0
He had a loose but strong possible opening of Turn 1 Bayou Veteran explorer with a Cabal Therapy in hand. Sadly I was on the play and hit him with Bayou + Swords to Plowshares on turn 2. He never drew another land and died to Batterskull.
Game two was more normal as he got a Leovold out followed by a Pernicious Deed. Sadly I had already resolved Knight of the Reliquary at that point and double wastelands later he was forced to crack the deed for only 2, afterwards I cast my second Knight of the Reliquary and it was over.
Round Four: Maverick 0-2
Both games were super grindy and super long. However, maindeck Abrupt Decays helped him win the Mother of Runes advantage game 1 while a no Mother of Runes setup game two doomed me to be eternally at the back foot versus his Jitte. His overly cautious play gave me a few outs but I failed to draw either of the two Toxic Deluges I had boarded in. The games were very close regardless.
Round Five: Elves 2-1
Game one had me use Mother of Runes exclusively for evasion as a turn 2 Thalia started forcing damage in. A follow up scooze a few turns later along with some lucky wastelands on his Dryad Arbors allowed to get an evasive 4 damage clock. Made a misplay where I didn’t cast a 2nd Thalia early on to get another creature in the graveyard to grow my Ooze to a 5 power creature. The game ended with him at 4 casting Natural Order.
Game 2 was much simpler. Turn 2 Knight of the Reliquary was followed up by Plow + Wasteland with Knight searching for Thespian Stage. Unable to kill the Knight he drew several cards before passing the turn back and dying to Marit Lage. Game 3 was pure luck with a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman, turn 2 Thespian Stage + Swords to Plowshares on his mana source. Turn 3 I top deck Dark Depths. The combo forces him to try to go off with a turn 3 natural order for lethal; but a 20/20 blocker was enough to keep me alive and he immediately dies on the crack-back.
Round Six: Death and Taxes 1-2
Game one was fairly boring as these matchups go. He was able to grab a Jitte, I was not. Game two it was fairly similar; I got an early batterskull down to apply pressure, followed by getting a Jitte active. The game was over soon after. Game three was a damn grind with him finally getting an advantage after resolving his 3rd Mother of Runes to my none. I had a few outs with Scryb Ranger later on, and his unwillingness to be blown out by Knight tricks kept me alive a few turns longer than I should have been—but Moms are really good in this matchup.
Round Seven: Grixis Delver 2-1
Game one was fairly simple. I cast Thalia on turn two, he casts Force of Will. I cast Knight of the reliquary on turn three, he doesn’t daze and delver can’t beat an active knight.
Game two I kept a sketchy one land hand with a Birds, a Deathrite Shaman, and a Green Sun’s Zenith. I fetch for a Forest and cast Deathrite—he dazes it. I then miss a land drop and cast Birds, he pushes it. I draw a colorless land and cast GSZ for 1, he forces it. I am unable to cast spells as I die to Delver beats.
Game three he kills and counters the first 3 spells I cast, I then make a 20/20 and win the game despite his full grip of removal and counters.
Top Eight
I get eight place and we decide to split the cash prize. Since I already have my byes people did the concessions dance until the last few players who had to play got to play.
Great event overall, but I feel I threw away some games I shouldn’t have.
My List
Creatures: 26
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Dryad Arbor
Spells: 13
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dark Depths
Lands: 22
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
2 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Thespian’s Stage
Sideboard: 15
3 Duress
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sanctum Prelate
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
Post Event Review:
I was most unhappy with Maze of Ith all day. Except for against the Delver matchups, the card has been fairly lackluster. And while I did face two delver lists today—I am still unsure how prevalent that archetype will be from a “game one” perspective. Possibly moving this card to the sideboard along with Sword of Fire and Ice.
Sword of Fire and Ice has been situationally relevant in many games, but if you’re observant you’d see that I currently run a 61 card maindeck. Without Miracles as my worry I have been “hungry” for a value sword less and less—primarily because I’ve been either facing off against combo or I’ve been facing off in the “Get Jitte” stoneblade mirrors. Simply having a sword to make my low tier threats powerful enough to Terminus doesn’t seem as relevant.
Did not draw my Deluges today. Two of my losses could have been 180’d by only Deluges as a Serra Avenger wearing a SOFI and a Mirran Crusader would have killed me regardless had a I only had -1/-1 effects; however, I really could have used damn near any of the sweepers and still gotten value.
Dark Depths overperformed as usual netting me wins against both Elves and a bad board state which would normally spell lights out for Maverick. However, I did feel the card’s limitations in the two losses I had against both Maverick and D&T. I normally beat these lists but these two were good players and I wonder how many of wins in the past was attributed to the good players hiding from Miracles. More testing will now be needed.
Final Thoughts
This was the first truly big Legacy event in my area post-banning and the existence of two Maverick decks in the top 8 is very telling of the coming shift. I faced a much wider mix of decks than I normally do and I there was even representation throughout between Stoneblade lists, Delver Lists, and combo lists. As much as I hated the principle of the Top banning—I’m really enjoying the end results.
To answer the question about collected company,Originally Posted by aspsnake
This versatile card helps in two ways: either regain board control from losing creatures by a wrath/lots of removal, or break the stalemate by going wide. Every time collected company resolved, I felt that I was gaining board control and thus led to victory by just having more creatures that my opponent could handle. Matchups like Deathblade and Delver its all about board control. Now, you don't need collected company. While the card is really good, I board it out sometimes for stronger cards that will help me win matches that CC will not (i.e storm, reanimator). You don't need to massively rebuild the deck around this card. I said before in previous post that this card is in accompaniment to GSZ. However, if anyone wants to run this card, I strongly urge them to play the 25-26 creature count. 26 is the prefer number given the amount of copies of CC I was running (2 was the number I felt the most comfortable).
Bird vs Noble arugement:
I like both, and actually I'm strongly considering cutting the 4th Deathrite Shaman for a Noble Hierarch. I'm sure at some earlier post the debate between having a 0/1 flyer that can break stalemates or a 0/1 exlated creature that can sometimes break stalemates was discussed. (On a personally note, I like my foil German Bird of Paradise and I"m not cutting it) The deck only runs 7 fetches, which really we can't really eat early because it make our Knights smaller.
Sword of Light and Shadow topic:
Deathblade is very popular right now as a substitute to former Miracles players' deck of choice. Everyone knows how Deathblade can be miserable to play against since it preys on our archetype, (fairest of the fair, yet resilience towards most hate). Qasali is our best silver bullet creature that deals with pesky enchantments and artifacts. Until something better comes along, getting back Pridemages from Light and Shadow feels amazing.
I also went 3-1-1 on a Legacy GPT that I'm writing a TR report. It should be on my blog by the end of the week.
Super excited for everyone's recent work and recent placements. I do have an off the wall question though...
I am completely off of Knight at this point and am having trouble re-making a GW manabase...
Do you guys have any ideas for a straight GW mana base?
I am going back and forth with multiple Cradles, multiple Karakas, Caverns... things of that nature.
Thanks for any help you could offer!
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
I always start with the 14/14 color source base in my hatebear lists. When I used to run GW I ran:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Marsh Flats
4 Forest
2 Plains
2 Savannah
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
At the time I ran marsh flats because I ran 4 Mirran Crusader and 2 Elspeth's maindeck, so being able to fetch double plains was important to me while naturally drawing green overtime was okay for me.
The reason I ran 6 basics was because I wanted to be extra prepared against RUG delver, which was still omnipresent at the time. Between stifles and wastelands it was very easy to get cut off of color so I prepped for that.
If you wanted the maximum number of "fun of" lands (cradle, caverns, etc... then I would actually go the 8 fetch 3 savannah, 2 forest, 1 plains, 1 karakas, 1 horizon canopy suite as a starting point. This gives you the minimum 14 sources for each color and up to 6 slots of cards (4 of which I am assuming is wasteland)
Not sure how much help this will be as I've not played Maverick for a long time, but I was lending all my blue cards to friends at my LGS this evening so played straight GW mav, a nice coincidence that you're talking about exactly that.
This is what I played
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Quasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Rogues Passage
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
SB/
2 Choke
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Rest in Peace
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Disenchant
2 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
0-2 vs Ant
2-1 vs Elves
2-0 vs RUG Delver (nice to play such a classic matchup! Mav did what mav does)
2-0 vs Sneak and Show
I didn't get to use the sideboard too much, KotR was the all star as always. I would run a Horizon Canopy but I don't own one unfortunately.
Do you still have a list?
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
It was a million years ago, iirc it was similar to this:
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
4 Forest
2 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Tower of the Magistrate
I still thought of Dryad Arbor as a land back then, and counted it as a green source. Also notice lack of Scryb Ranger and hence a dependence on Elspeth and mom for evasion (Truename felt so busted when I ran no evasion outside of the killable elspeth)
The tech is super archaic but it's kind of what I thought was good at the time.
I am currently testing in the realm of GW hatebears and less traditional Maverick, except they both can be classified as GW Stoneblade if we really want.. but that is all just semantics.
Very Experimental List:
3 Mother of Runes
4 Nobles Heirarch
4 Thalia Guardian of Thraben
3 Sanctum Prelate
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Quasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawas Jitte
3 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
3 Arid Mesa
3 Savannah
2 Plains
2 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Wasteland
Sideboard(15)
1 Wilt-Leaf Leige
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Batterskull
2 RiP
1 Manriki
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Containment Priest
3 Choke
This is kind of what I have been leaning towards over the last couple of weeks. Pretty much just GW Hate, with the sideboard kind of up in the air currently.
In testing it has game against most of the current format-in-flux, with Crusader being much faster than Knight straight up. The biggest weakness for Crusader, lightning bolt, is usually covered by Mother of Runes or Prelate. Scavenging Ooze is to shut down DRS and Snapcaster immediately, while the whole deck is more or less immune to graveyard hate.
Thoughts?
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
I picked up a playset of Living Wish because it's cheap and seems fun, and I love trying new things with this deck.
Lands and creatures are what this deck does best so seems reasonable.
However we have GSZ and knight to fetch up both of those already.
So what would Living Wish do that we can't with the other two?
Get mono-white creatures (prelate, canonist, containment priest), get those even in game 1 if appropriate.
Get lands that we really don't want to risk drawing (for me, things like bojuka bog, maze of ith maybe).
Downside is that the fastest we can jam it is turn 2, so those will only show up turn 3 onwards, which may or may not be way too late.
So that's where I'm at with it right now. Anyone have any thoughts/experience with the card?
I've so far seen it in deck lists from 2014/2015 (including this thread), any reason it isn't in more recent lists?
At some point there were some living wish/Vial maverick decks that ran dark confidant. With aether vial you could use your mana to cast wish and then vial in the creature. It seemed to be a more flash in the pan type thing but it could be worth checking out.
I find Maverick's ability to jam creatures from GSZ and by just drawing them the reason why we even exist.
Upsides of Living Wish:
- Finding the right creature/land to answer the board state
Downsides of Living Wish:
- 2 mana more to do it
- 3 mana more if we have Thalia in play
- possibly 4 mana more if we are playing against D&T/mirror
- cannot pick Thoughtseize/Deluge/Zealous, which would be often nuts (but can pick Tidehollow Sculler/Orzhov Pontiff, in matches where you can afford it in time).
- often you will need to have a turn between getting a creature and actually playing it, which will give your opponent 1-2 turns to adapt their strategy.
If you feel that you want to tutor certain creatures, instead give Fauna Shaman a try. In fair low-removal matchups (again D&T, mirror, goblins (possibly elves with a slow hand) etc.), this card just shines. But the real thing here is that we are already positioned 50/50 or better in these matchups (except elves), so I think right now it's better to just jam creatures and claim the speed rather than the options.
To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee. One clover, a bee, and revery...
That makes sense.
How about using it to close out the game then? I'm thinking the titanias and sigardas of this world, that you don't particularly want to draw early, but would love late game.
Sigarda is sometimes nice early game as it can be put into play from Show&Tell and block Emrakul (especially cool if he comes from a Sneak Attack) and buy you some time.
Abovementioned Fauna Shaman can be used to discard these cards early game and find something that you can instantly play (Stoneforge, Mother of Runes, Knight etc.). Fauna Shaman is also not completely useless vs unfair matchups: responding to Show&Tell with an activation; t2 Fauna Shaman vs Storm to play a t3 Thalia that they can't discard (in games where they have a bad hand); vs Aluren you can find a Qasali Pridemage that you can search for and play instant-speed in case Aluren hits the table.
And for the late game, you already have zeniths to have a virtual 5-of any of these ;)
To make a prairie, it takes a clover and one bee. One clover, a bee, and revery...
The issue with living Wish is 2-fold.
Green Suns is better mana efficiency wise; which means you need to run it with vial.
However--suddenly your Vial activations can be countered just by hitting living Wish--also no bueno.
Is living Wish unplayable? No--maverick is just not the right list for it.
I did use it in a meathooks brew. I ran gemstone hide sliver main so would do things like living Wish for elesh norn vs Jitte decks or living Wish for Karakas vs Reanimator, even living Wish for specific hate slivers depending on if I need lifelink, flying, poison, etc....
One of the lists posted on the last page had a CoP: Red in the board. Kinda intrigued by this. I've found Burn to be manageable, but UR Delver is a little too close for comfort. How good do you guys think CoP: Red is against UR Delver? Obviously it's gonna be awesome if we're on the play and they're using Bolts, Swiftspears, and Stormchasers, but if they just do the Delver + burn for board control plan, it seems lackluster.
EDIT: Crap, I thought I was in the bant thread.
I would run Warmth instead of Cop:Red, even with it's weaknesses.
Weirdly I've always found the opposite to be true, where burn is near unwinnable while UR is almost a bye.
I would like to mention (and this is important) with the loss of Miracles the presence of Sulfuric Vortex will definitely drop, making life gain effects like this much more practical against Burn.
Courser of Kruphix helps against burn, for at least G1. Gaining incremental life is relevant and having a 2/4 body makes the burn player have 2-1 (exception of Fireblast) themselves in order to remove it.
I'll say that if you're willing to risk requiring Noble/DRS/a-1-of-Dual for blue, Chill is definitely a house. I was recommending it in my edited post.
Not only is it good against Burn no matter what they do, but it has application against Storm and Pfire decks if nothing else.
I use an ETutor board so I have 3 virtual copies in my board. The dual-land in the side may well be worth the trouble given that it really does count against Storm pretty well, and is obnoxious to get rid of being an enchant. Warmth treated me well enough in Junk/DGA/etc. but Chill is *quite* good. I can't recommend it enough.
While I'm gushing over SB cards, I'm at 2 Canonist at the moment with my 2 tutors. Their effect in Infect has proven to be ridiculous, and combined with the Aluren and Food Chain matchups slowly growing in number and the everpresent Storm, she's pulling her weight. Not the worst against Burn either as a means to slow them down. Rift Bolt becomes a time-walk almost, Swiftspear becomes utterly meh when the *best* it can do is be a 2/3.
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